Michelle Obama

She’s known for being a workout fiend who engages in high-intensity sweat sessions, but for Michelle Obama, true joy isn’t found on a treadmill or beneath a barbell.

{mosads}“You know, happiness for me is when my kids are good and when my family is whole,” Obama, mom to Malia, 17, and Sasha, 14, said in 2011.

“My happiness is measured against theirs — when they’re in a good place, I feel really good.”

Not to say Obama, who launched her Let’s Move anti-childhood obesity initiative five years ago, doesn’t also feel good obliterating calories at the gym. The executive mansion resident’s regular workouts include jumping rope, boxing and lifting weights, among other exercises.

“If I don’t exercise, I won’t feel good,” Obama declared a few months after settling in at the White House in 2009.

Since then, she’s shown that she’s a physical activity force to be reckoned with.

— Judy Kurtz